SeeU (시유) is a Korean VOCALOID developed and distributed by SBS A&T (formerly SBS Artech), and was released in October 2011 for South Korea and later in December for Japan. Her voice is provided by Korean female singer, Dahee Kim, a member of the K-Pop idol group, 'GLAM'. Dahee recorded in Korean and Japanese for the two voicebanks.

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Her name in Korean is rendered as "시유" (Siyu) and in Japanese it is "シユ" (Shiyu). During an interview with SBS A&T manager, Hyo Eun Kim, it was said that SeeU's name came to mind after thinking of a line from the 2009 film, Avatar. The line "I See You" popped into her mind and became the inspiration for 'SeeU'. According to SBS, this is only one of several meanings of her name.[1][2]

SeeU was given a moe-esque design and is aimed more specifically to the general and VOCALOID Otaku fandom. SBS stated that SeeU was created to be a "cute and lively yet mysterious looking 17 year old girl." Her outfit was designed with a school uniform in mind. Her official illustrations and design was created by KKUEM.

Her cat ears/nekomimi are speakers. According to her illustrator, they are actually detachable[3] Her neckband is a CD player. Soundwaves light up on the rectangle of her flat-shoes and on the upper part of her top (chest). There's a pause button at the back of her clothes, a power button on the ribbon of her neckband and an "on" button on one of the buttons at the front of her top. During a virtual interview starring SeeU conducted by SBS, SeeU revealed her clothing size to be XXS.[4]

VOCALOID3 Library SV01 SeeU Limited Edition was produced for her launch in 2011, which included a SeeU Demo song CD, photo frame, stickers, badges, phone strap, manual booklet and an illustration book called "SEEU COME INTO THE WORLD".[5] SBS also promoted SeeU to the public by printing her illustration on face packs and on the side of taxi cars.

During Nico Nico Chokaigi 2012‘s “VOCALOID NEWS", SBS stepped forward and claimed to be producing an album for SeeU. On October 19, 2012, SBS Artech teamed up with Big Hit Entertainment and released an album called SV01 SeeU's Compilation Album, featuring seven notable songs from the UGC contest. The album was released in Japan and translated into Japanese lyrics on October 29, 2012.

The website CreCrew (A combination of the words "create" and "crew") was opened for Vocaloid artists and fans alike by SBS Artech. It provides a hub for users to collaborate, however the conditions are different for the artwork and videos uploaded onto the website: third-party content is allowed to a greater degree.

SBS announced a surprise party for SeeU on CreCrew for her first birthday. Producers and artists will have a chance to earn goodies made by the SBS team by drawing a picture or creating a short 30 second birthday song for SeeU. The translated version of the event can be found here.

The previous page of CreCrew after the site came down. A caption underneath thanks the fans for their support.

CreCrew held a photograph contest in which the winners received either a SeeU vocaloid library, a limited edition SeeU's 1st birthday library, a product package or a "SeeU Tumbler". The contest was sponsored by inTVitem, an online store.

CreCrew created a board notice stating that the website will be shut down on the 30th of September at midnight. The notice explains that the reason is due to the fact that the site costs around 10 million won (about $9,450) to run. CreCrew disabled uploading new contents on August 31 and remained open throughout the month of September for users to download remaining content before its closure.

As of September, 2013, CreCrew has officially been shut down. All that remains of the website is a single page with a picture of SeeU's official art that thanks the fans for supporting her and SBS. It also directed the viewer to the site of the new fandom's official site, known as Vocaloid Empire.

The current cover of ate.li.

Some time during 2014, anyone who typed in CreCrew's address redirected to the new Korean online community, Ate Li (아트리). The site serves as a new website for Korean creators and SeeU fans, where SeeU originals, and fanart, are uploaded for viewing. It also has a large number of fan covers of VOCALOID songs, many of them being in Korean. Ate Li was founded by a Korean developer, a fan group in South Korea that does professional covers of VOCALOID songs, as well.

Vocaloid Empire

Vocaloid Empire Logo

After the shut down of CreCrew, Dr. Yun headed the new Korean Vocaloid's fandom by creating [1], Vocaloid Empire, located on a very popular Korean blog site known as Naver. Vocaloid Empire has all the features of CreCrew and more, including the ability to upload original music, covers, fanart, 3D/MMD and more SeeU/Vocaloid related content. It also includes a weekly ranking held and updated every Sunday.

The site currently has over 9,792 Naver users following and uploading content. However, the site is almost completely in Korean, making it difficult for those outside of the Korean fandom to enjoy it fully.

The second UGC contest has ended for original songs, and the top four winners have been chosen. Their songs will be featured in the upcoming SeeU concert in March of 2014. The winnings songs were written by TEAM FOIS, Sangnoksu, Gota and DZSTUN in that order. Costumes used or drawn in the songs will be used in the concert for the performances.

Throughout the month of March, a "banner contest" was held by Dr. Yun that allowed Korean fans to design and upload a page banner to be displayed at the top of Vocaloid Empire's front page. Each "season" will feature a new banner from the top five winners of the contest. The winners have since been chosen, with first place won by Hanarin, followed by Ssukkuk, Tturu, Eilrin and Moonlight, in that order, as seen here.

Competition

The tweet translated with Google to give a rough translation of the tweet.

An art competition was held related to her. According to SBS Artech, the winner receives a limited version of her software and an Intuos tablet, second place will win the normal software package and the VOCALOID3 editor, and third place will just receive the limited edition voicebank. The winners of the competition were revealed on September 17, 2011. All winning and notable entries appeared in SeeU's newest demo PV. On the 23rd, her official first demo song was uploaded, featuring all the winners and honorably mentioned artwork.

On November 17, 2011, SBS Artech announced 1st UGC competition for SeeU. The winners of the competition were finally announced on Febuary 3rd, 2012. SBS Artech held an award ceremony for the winners and had famous Korean producer Shi Hyuk Bang attend the ceremony, as well as SBS news announcer Min Ji Kim.

A second competition, a SeeU Product Design Contest, was held from April 23 to June 1 by SBS Artech. Anything over 3rd place was promised to be made and the 1st place winner is given the opportunity to work as SBS Artech/11th street’s character goods designer.

The 2nd UCG competition was announced on 9 September 2013. The winners will be announced on November 22 have their songs appear in a hologram concert on March 2014.[6]

According to Vocaloid Empire, the UGC contest has ended and the top six winners have been chosen. The grand prize was awarded to an artist under the name of Aiso in the original song category. More information is found here.

The third UGC contest has been announced for December, lead by Dr. Yun and ST Media. The contest will feature multiple sections, including original songs (Vocalina and UTAU are permitted), cover songs (one for people and one for VOCALOIDs), illustrations, literature (poetry, lyrics), translations (tba), costumes/cosplay and other media content (dance videos, 3D models, etc.). The deadline has yet to be announced.

Interview

During a recent interview with Prica by the SBS Artech team, SBS has announced some plans they will be doing. SBS claimed they have started a company called VMP Korea (Vocaloid Music Publishing Korea) to publish CDs out of songs uploaded to Crecrew. SeeU and GLAM will be appearing in an international 3D contest. They are planning an event with Dongne Festa (a Doujin event) towards the end of the year. Winners from SeeU's Birthday competition will receive the limited edition of SeeU's Birthday products. The UGC contest winner will receive a CD.

Game

SeeU songs were added to the iOS app game "Krazy Rain 2 Battle" (크레이지레인2 배틀), a rhythym game. The app is free but the songs must be purchased seperately. Since the app is set up as a arcade style, it costs 25 or 30 points (you get 2000 points for $2) per play, although some songs are free. Songs included are a selection of popular songs from CreCrew, as well as a couple of her demo songs. More songs may be added later.[7]

An app for SeeU on iOS was created entitled, "호랭 시유" ("Horaeng SeeU"). The app is a manga in a 4-panel format, and has little to no text. There are about 44-45 pages total, and around 20 pages of bonus material. The story itself is about SeeU and her pet tiger and their daily lives. Hatsune Miku, Megurine Luka, Aoki Lapis, Camui Gackpo and Akikoroid-chan all make appearances in the novel.[8]

me2day

SeeU has a me2day account. As of June 2014 SeeU's me2day account has been shut down.

Hyundai has released a campaign entitled Brilliant Song, a competition where people create lyrics for premade music selections based on a certain mood. VOCALOID programs are used to sing the lyrics. SeeU sings for Korean competitors, but Brilliant Song is being used worldwide and other VOCALOIDs are being used for the different languages (Oliver and Sweet Ann for English, Bruno and Clara for Spanish, etc.). The winners of the Brilliant Song competitions will win various prizes.

First place was won by Wongi Ryu, using SeeU's Korean voicebank. According to Hyundai, Wongi Ryu won overall and had the top lyrics globally.

SK Tellink

Tellink's rep seen "shaking hands" with SeeU.

On August 28, 2012, SK Tellink entered into a business partnership with SBS Artech for digital multimedia (video content), and a marketing partnership with SBS Artech ID Bell, as well. SeeU was used as a representative mascot for the event, and is seen in a picture shaking hands with Tellink's representative. Apart of the deal includes Tellink's agreement to publicize and promote SeeU videos on their sites.

Ansan Hanggongjeon Airshow

The SeeU display for AH Airshow 2013

SBS Artech took part in the 2013 Ansan Hanggongjeon Airshow and had a small display area set up just for SeeU during the show. The airshow is a special military event that takes place from June 1-5 every year. The SeeU booth was set up to promote SeeU, VOCALOID3 and the website CreCrew while it was still up. There were free giveaways and small trinkets being sold at the display, and was open for the public to come and visit and have a good time. The SeeU corner was set up from the 3rd day to the last of the airshow, and featured many interesting things about SeeU, as well as a life-size SeeU cardboard character and the Chou Cream on top of the banner at the front of the set up.

Performance

SeeU and GLAM collaborate on SBS's show Inkigayo.

On July 18, 2012, an administer from SBS Artech posted a poster to introduce SeeU's first "live" performance on a Korean music show called 인기가요 (Inkigayo), broadcasted by SBS. SeeU performed with her voice provider, Dahee, as well as the other members of Dahee's group, GLAM. SeeU appeared as a hologram designed by a 3D designer named Chuh Ri. The show was aired to the public on July 22, 2012.

About a month later on August 31, SeeU performed alongside GLAM yet again at the KSF2012 singing and dancing to I=Fantasy. Other songs included Party (XXO) and Glamorous.

December 29, SeeU performed with GLAM on stage at the SBS Gayo Daejun (a major annual end-of-the-year music program broadcasted by SBS) for GLAM's comeback. GLAM was the first rookie K-Pop group to perform their comeback song "I Like That" on the show. The show was part of the SBS charity project 'The Color of K-pop'. After the performance, SBS released SeeU's music video that was used on the stage.

On January 19, SeeU appeared in her own solo concert, titled "Crazy Otaku's Unofficial B-rated Don't Ask SeeU Concert", and the video footage of the concert became available at Crecrew few days later. During the concert, SeeWoo (gender bender of SeeU) made an appearance along with Luo Tianyi and Vocalina Vora.
Also on the 19th of January, SeeU made an appearance and sang I=Fantasy at the SwampCon 2013 Hatsune Miku Hologram Concert.

On March 23, SeeU appeared in a concert at the Tora Con AniMiku concert, singing Star and Paparoach by Dr. Yun, as well as Leaving Donna by Empath-P. The entire concert can be seen here.

On May 24th, a SeeU concert was held at the AX Concert Hall in Seoul, directed and created by ST Media (a music company founded by Dr. Yun) and Dr. Yun himself.

The songs were almost all completely by ST Media and/or Dr. Yun, as well as two songs YANHE sung as a special feature and the three songs from the SeeU 2nd UGC competition. The concert was called "The First or the Last", and had over 1,800 fans attend.

The concert was reported a large success by Dr. Yun, who released a big "thank you" message on Vocaloid Empire the day after the concert. A special, high-polymer model was used for the concert, however there are no official photos or clear pictures of the new model of SeeU.

Christmas Sales

Starting December 17, 2013, SeeU's voicebank has gone on sale until the 31st of December. Her voicebank's price has been cut from 143,000 won to only 69,900 won, which is about an 80,000 won drop from before. She's available for purchase exclusively in Korea via CreCrew Store as a Christmas special and a promotion to encourage more fans to buy the program.

The email sent by SBS confirming CreCrew and eBay information. SeeU's program/limited edition package is also being resold on eBay for only $117.00, about an $113+ drop from before. The package is being resold for a limited time, same as in Korea, but is now available worldwide. CreCrew Store required a Korean address in order to purchase the product. eBay will allow anyone globally to purchase her program.

eBay Sales

The email sent by SBS confirming CreCrew and eBay information.

SBS Artech resold SeeU on eBay for a fairly reduced price. SeeU's full box with all the extra merchandise (including the phone key chain, stickers, manuals and buttons) came with the package, and was being sold for only $117.00 USD with free shipping included. As of July 16, 2014, SeeU's program completely sold out of stock from SBS. The library is officially no longer in stock on eBay, and is not available from SBS on any other sales site on the Internet.
SBS Artech has also begun to sell the SeeU "Snapback" hats on eBay, as well as the military caps, seen here for the Snapbacks and here for the military caps. Said caps can cost between $20-$35 USD based on location when shipping is included.

The SBS A&T team admitted SeeU sold less than expected within South Korea and Japan. Specific number of sales have not been revealed.

Reaction

Because of some issues between Japan and South Korea involving fans basing opinions on political and racial issues, this gave SeeU a rough start in both countries. The issues with Japanese fans in regard to SeeU has also left SeeU's Nicopedia page subject to issues reflecting this.

Therefore, her overall popularity ranges per website from amongst the "least popular" to "most popular" of the VOCALOID3 releases. It is affected by the opinions and politics of fans within that particular circle of the fandom.

Her overall popularity according to Google trends, spiked in September 2011 a month before her release, but she has since lost most of her popularity.

Impact

Amongst the other issues related to SeeU and her popularity, her English vocal was put on hiatus around Feb 2013. The hiatus was to raise SeeU's profile and make her more popular as SBS A&T were unsure how fans would react. Further developments to SeeU's vocal, remains unknown.

Miscellaneous

In 2015 a survey was made based on the popularity of Vocaloids on website Nico Video. For the year 2014, SeeU was the 38th most popular Vocaloid and the second least popular Japanese capable vocaloid.[9]